The present invention relates generally to railway pneumatic brake systems and, more specifically, to an interface between a pneumatic train brake control system and a train of electrically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brake equipped cars.
The freight train industry in the U.S. is transitioning from a completely pneumatically-controlled train to a train having ECP brake equipment on their cars. For the foreseeable future, not all locomotives will have the capability of interfacing with an ECP equipped train. They do not have the ability to provide the necessary power or electric control signals to the individual cars nor to control the brake pipe as required by the ECP cars. As presently configured, the train brake pipe is maintained at its charged value and is only used as a pneumatic back-up for failure of the ECP electrical control signals.
To meet this demand, various systems have been suggested. A limp-in control arrangement for ECP systems is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,913. An interface which provides the appropriate level of power to the ECP trainline is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,126. A locomotive to ECP brake conversion system which provides the appropriate power and control signals to the car trainline is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,980. Another interface system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,229.
The present interface system includes a controller monitoring pressure on a locomotive brake pipe port, controlling pressure on a train brake pipe port in response to the pressure on a locomotive brake pipe port, providing ECP commands on an ECP trainline via a train electrical terminal in response to the pressure on the locomotive brake pipe port, and providing electrical power on the ECP trainline via an train electrical trainline terminal from the locomotive electrical trainline terminal A transceiver is connected to the controller for wireless communication with the controller. A wireless display unit communicates via the transceiver with the controller and displays information from the controller to the operator remote from the interface system and provides inputs from the operator to the controller.
The display unit has an antenna electrically connected to the display unit and removable mounted to the display unit by a mount and the mount allows mounting the antenna to a locomotive. The mount is a magnetic mount. The display unit includes a chargeable power source and the interface system includes a charger for receiving the display unit and charging the power source. The wireless communication maybe WiFi.
The controller communicates train brake system status to the display unit and the display unit communicates display unit status to the controller. The controller communicates prompts of required action by the operator to the display unit. The system may include a GPS receiver connected to the controller and the controller performs speed limit enforcement using data from the GPS. The system controller communicates loss of data from the GPS receiver to the display unit. The system may include an event recorder connecting the GPS receiver to the controller.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention, when considered in conjunction with accompanying drawings.